"Ah done been in sorrow's kitchen and Ah done licked out all de pots. Ah done died in grief and been buried in de bitt…"

"Gods always behave like the people who make them."

"I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in …"

"I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind…"

"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny the…"

"Well, Ah see Mouth-Almighty is still sittin' in de same place. And Ah reckon they got me up in they mouth now.""Yes i…"

"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn a…"

"After a while she got up from where she was and went over the little garden field entire. She was seeking confirmatio…"

"‘So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he d…"

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."